Читать книгу The Secrets of Spies - Weldon Owen - Страница 55

THE GROWTH OF

PROFESSIONAL

INTELLIGENCE

CHAPTER 3  NINETEENTHCENTURY INTELLIGENCE

56

Prior to the 1800s, most intelligence services and spy networks were formed ad hoc

to deal with rising issues or conflicts, and disbanded in peacetime or after their

investigations ended. But after the near-constant warring periods of the eighteenth

century, wherein at least two major powers were in conflict with one another at almost

any given moment, intelligence groups likewise began to expand and develop.

As tensions continued to rise between European and other

nations throughout the nineteenth century, so too did each

power’s investment into permanent intelligence services.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was the first to create a truly

permanent office for military intelligence—the Evidenzbüro

was founded in 1850, with a subordinate group, known

as the Kundschaftsbüro, established to keep an eye

on foreign nations. Britain followed Austria,

with the Topographical and Statistical

Department created during the Crimean

War in 1854 (later reorganized into

the War Office’s Intelligence Branch

in 1873); next came the French

Ministry of War’s Deuxième

Bureau in 1871, supplemented

by the national police.

THE RUSSIAN OKHRANA

Along with developments

in standing intelligence

departments, permanent

counterintelligence offices also

came into being. Spying on

foreign powers was their main

task, but sometimes they also

suppressed internal dissent. One

example was the Department for

Protecting Public Security and

Order, or Okhrana (the Russian word

for “security”). This office was formed

in 1866 in St. Petersburg, and later

expanded to offices in Moscow and

Warsaw in 1881, after Tsar Alexander II

was assassinated. The Okhrana cracked down hard

on the terrorist group responsible along with leftist

organizations, engaged in union-busting. It also allegedly

drafted The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a text of

antisemitic propaganda.

The Okhrana’s activities extended well beyond

the Motherland. Its Foreign Agency spied on

revolutionaries outside Russia, sent agents to

foment disorder, and intercepted private

letters, even deciphering British and

German military and diplomatic codes.

However, divided between military

counterintelligence and suppressing

anti-Tsarist activity during the

1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War,

the Okhrana failed in both

arenas. Ultimately, Russia

ceased hostilities months

before Japan would have

entered an economic crisis, and

growing revolutionary forces

were emboldened by the

Okhrana’s attempts to stop

them. Japan ultimately gained

greater dominance over the

western Pacific. The Okhrana

itself was dissolved after its

headquarters were looted and

burned by revolutionaries in 1917.

Left: Tsar Alexander II of Russia was

assassinated in 1881, prompting a rapid

expansion in Russian secret services.